Community Projects

Members of DiverCity spent time at the Greenville County Boys and Girls Club. Children ranging from preteens through older teenagers participate in after school programs at the club. The DiverCity capstone group recognized that every child spending time there was African American. The composition of their own capstone group was a owerful example for the children; the students were impressed to see such a diverse group of adults hanging out and enjoying each other.

DLIbrarians recognizes that access to books is one of the most successful ways to improve the reading achievement of children. However, according to the U.S. Department of Education, up to 61% of low‐income families do not have any books for their kids at home. Little Free Libraries (LFL) play an essential role by providing 24/7 access to books (and encouraging a love of reading!) in areas where books are scarce.

Dream Weavers focuses on one of the least visible aspects of poverty: children who are not homeless, but within their homes, do not have a bed to sleep in. The Dream Weavers team was inspired by similar activities undertaken by agencies in only a handful of other cities. Those cities have recognized that their populations have a certain percentage of children in poverty who live in homes but without beds.

Eleraffes group members examined diversity in Greenville County, by focusing on the Senior Choice Program at the Northwest Crescent Center. This location was chosen because of the assortment of activities it provides for all age groups in the community. The Eleraffes conducted interviews with program directors and participants of the Senior Choice program in order to learn more about the program and its demographics.

Empathy without Apprehension’s goal is to improve the interactions between law enforcement and youth. By facilitating the interactive game Juvenile Justice Jeopardy, the Greenville Sheriff’s Department will be able to expand their community outreach to teens in the county. The game teaches youth about the justice system and helps them understand their legal rights as well as the consequences of certain actions. Juvenile Justice Jeopardy has been successfully implemented around the country and this DLI project will be the first time it is introduced to South Carolina.

The Explorers aim to spread an understanding of and appreciation for diversity to students. The Waccamaw River is essentially the only separation between the attendance regions for St. James and Conway High Schools, but students from these two high schools generally have very different day-to-day experiences, mainly because of disparate backgrounds. The Explorers aim to bridge this gap, partnering with such organizations as Coastal Carolina Community College, in understanding between students from these two schools by bringing them together through education.

“It could happen to you.” Family Promise was created to establish and facilitate a community-wide network that would provide a safety net for families experiencing unforeseen emergencies. In partnership with GAIHN—the Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network—the group sought to raise funds to support homeless families by providing emergency shelter, meals, and short-term housing to help families achieve self-sufficiency and self-fulfillment.

Flashes of Hope South Carolina Midlands will provide a myriad of volunteers to come together from many diverse backgrounds for the purpose of capturing professional and lovingly memorable photographic images of pediatric patients with life-threatening diseases, disorders, and injuries like cancer, sickle cell, and trauma. This program will be offered to many who may not have the ability to pay for such services, but certainly will not remain exclusive to them.

DLI Group 2 formed a partnership with a local Greenville nonprofit, Fostering Great Ideas (FGI), to increase their pool of mentors by 25%, with a focus on increasing the diversity of mentors so that children in foster care can be mentored by someone with whom they can easily identify. You can learn more about FGI at FGIonline.org.

Team Fostering Hope has partnered with Fostering Great Ideas (FGI), an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children as they struggle in foster care (fgionline.org). Currently in Upstate South Carolina, there are 1,642 children in foster care and only 900 foster families. Seven hundred and forty two more foster families are needed TODAY so that every child can live with a family while in foster care.